Proverbs 25:25-As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country.
Hello from Guyana.
Naiome and I are doing well as we have been living back in Guyana for a little over three months. We have been getting adjusted to living again in the Guyanese culture. We are thankful to the University Church of Christ in Montgomery, Alabama for being our sponsoring congregation, and for several others who have made it possible for us to move back to Guyana to work with the Plaisance and the Industry Church of Christ on the East Coast of Guyana.
Personal Report:
The local preacher at Plaisance is Witfield Collins. He has been there about twenty years. I have been helping him with the teaching and preaching at Plaisance on Sundays. We helped get the Bible Class started again about the middle of May. Wed night Bible class also started a couple of months ago. The attendance is starting to pick up as we had 12 about two weeks ago for Wed night Bible Class. We started with only four attending the first few weeks.
Sunday mornings have been steady with about 40 attending worship, and a couple of times in July we had about 50 for worship. This is very encouraging, as I am seeing a different spirit at Plaisance from the time we came back to Guyana in late April.
Naiome is doing a great job with the children’s class with about 8 children now attending regularly. She started off with no children about two months ago. The ladies class started up in late May and meets every two weeks, and more of the ladies are starting to attend and get involved.
Sunday nights, Naiome and I attend the Industry Church of Christ. Floyd Cato has been the preacher there for about 20 years. I do lessons there a couple of times a month to encourage the congregation.
Memorial and Funeral Services for two former members at Plaisance:
I did a memorial service for a former member named Joyce who had died about a year ago. It is a tradition in Guyana for families to hold memorials for loved ones a year after their death. Joyce was a faithful Christian at Plaisance for about twenty-five years. I also did the funeral of Dolly who died in June. I also knew Dolly since the 90’s as she attended the Plaisance Church of Christ when we lived here from 1990-2001.
Vacation Bible School and Gospel Meeting Held at Plaisance and Industry:
We were blessed to have the University Church of Christ led by Joseph VanZandt and a team of twenty come to Plaisance and Industry from July 21st-25th. We held two VBS as we met at Industry Monday through Wed mornings, and had VBS at night at Plaisance, and had a fun day on Thursday.
We had a gospel meeting at Plaisance as Andrew Kingsley from the University Church of Christ preached on the Beatitudes and the sermon on the Mount, Sunday through Thursday Night and did a great job on all his lessons. The Gospel Meeting was well attended as many of our members came every night.
Our group from Montgomery, Alabama
Everyone on the team from Alabama was a great encouragement to the church at Plaisance and Industry. We also want to thank the men from the University congregation who worked with some of our men to build a new fence for Plaisance. I also want to thank Don Walker who made some visits with me at Plaisance and Industry, along with Andrew Kingsley to visit members and to encourage a man named Paul to obey the Gospel of Christ.
New fence built at Plaisance by some of the some of the men on the campaign.
Naiome will write much more about the VBS and the team in her part of the report. I want to thank the University Church of Christ again, and all those who have encouraged and supported us in the Guyana work. It is great being fellow- workers with you in Guyana.
In His Service,
Bruce House
Naiome’s Corner
Three months have flown by so fast!! As Bruce mentioned above, we have gotten settled in pretty much.
Personal news
My plantar fasciitis is better; however, I am still not able walk a lot without it acting up. I am looking forward to when I can walk again in the mornings.
I got to spend some time taking care of my mom as my two sisters and niece went on a Caribbean cruise. It was a great time to spend a week with her as we talked about old times. She did wear me out as I had to cook everyday as my mom does not eat leftovers 😊. We took her out to lunch one day and to the grocery store, she said it was a great day and it made my heart happy as she enjoyed herself. I am so glad that we are here and that my sister was able to take a vacation and I was able to help take care of my momma.
VBS
We are so thankful for the group from University Church of Christ from Montgomery, Alabama who came down for a week to work with us. The children had a great time both at Plaisance and Industry. Before the VBS we made a puppet stage to use at Plaisance. I did the framework out of PVC and Rupa and her daughter Sherry made the covering for the stage. I want to tell you a little bit about Rupa. She is a wonderful Christian woman, whom I had to privilege of converting over 25 years ago. Rupa is one of the daughters of Alvin and Ingrid Persaud who are both very faithful in the church. Sherry is Rupa youngest daughter who is 26 years old, we have the privilege of bringing Sherry home when she was a baby. We took Rupa to the hospital as she was about to deliver Sherry and then brought her and the baby home. It makes my heart so proud to see Rupa and her involvement in the church and to see Sherry helping, as she reminds me so much of Rupa.
Sherry and Rupa sewing the covering for the puppet stage.
We also had the group over for lunch at our house. I made chicken curry, roti, chicken chow mein, spaghetti and sauce.
We also celebrated Dirt’s birthday (he is from UCC) with a cake and pine tarts.
The group at our house.
Ellie Making Roti
Sunday school
Sunday school continues to increase, I have been having a total of seven kids on regular basis and had two more that came who attended the VBS, so we are up to 9 kids now. One of our goals over the next few weeks is to visit with the kids who came to the VBS and encourage them to attend Sunday School. One of the obstacles they face is several of the kids have to cross a busy highway and this is a main concern for parents. We are going to try to pick the kids up on Sunday and bring them to church. We are hoping to visit with the parents of the kids also and try to set up bible studies with them. I will write in August report about the class celebrating little Jordan’s birthday and our back to school fun day which is planned for the first weekend of September.
Ladies Class
The ladies class continues to grow, we started out with four ladies and are now up to about 10 ladies. We had a ladies luncheon on July 24th and invited all the ladies and young girls who came on the VBS group from Montgomery Alabama. It was such a great sweet fellowship.
Our Ladies Luncheon group
We are going to Suriname for a Ladies Retreat from August 29th – September 2nd, we have 11 ladies going to this event. Suriname is a neighboring country to Guyana, it a Dutch speaking country so it will be interesting as none of us going on the trip speaks Dutch, but I do have google translator on my phone 😊. We are continuing to study Psalm 23 and meet on the second and last Friday of each month. I usually prepare a treat for the ladies 😊 I made brownies the last time and am making carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for this week.
Church
The congregations at Plaisance and Industry continue to grow, as Bruce mentioned above, we have been spending most of our time at Plaisance helping to get things going and build up. There is so much work to be done here, not just at Plaisance and Industry but throughout all the churches in Guyana. We have a monthly fellowship meal at Plaisance to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries for the month. We make a menu that is affordable for everyone to be able to bring something to share. Menu for June was chowmein, for July it was chicken curry and dhal puri and for August its BBQ chicken and mac n cheese. I usually make cakes for about 50 😊. It’s a great time of fellowship and so good to see ladies and men in the congregation working together.
Thank you!
We want to thank the elders and members of the University Church of Christ and all those who have made it possible for us to be here in Guyana. You are such a blessing to us and the work here. We are so blest to be able to be co-workers with you in this great work. There is so much work to be done and we ask for your prayers daily as we continue to work. We pray for the Lord’s guidance as we make decisions and as we go out to study God’s word with those who are lost. We also pray for open hearts for those who are lost and for repentant hearts for those who have fallen away that they can be restored back to the Lord before it’s too late. I am thankful daily to be able to be here and spend time with my mom.
Thank you all again so much.
In Christian love
Naiome
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